A TEESSIDE MP joined colleagues in a failed bid to halt the “circus” inquest into the death of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed.

Dari Taylor, MP for Stockton South, was among senior Peers and MPs who made the plea to the judge hearing the inquest into the deaths in a Paris car crash.

But their appeal was rejected by the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, who issued a sharp warning to anyone commenting on the value of the hearing.

He said: “These inquests ... will continue to be heard by the jury, which in due course will return its verdict.

“I remind everyone ... that the jury decides the case on the evidence it hears in this court and on nothing else.”

The MPs expressed concern after up to ten members of the secret service were summoned to give evidence next week at the inquest, which has so far cost £6m.

Dodi’s father, Mohamed al-Fayed, says his son and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip, Diana’s former father-in-law.

Ms Taylor, a member of the committee that monitors the intelligence and security services, said: “The security services are severely overworked. We understand Mr Fayed’s grief. But he has got to accept at some stage that there was nobody involved in his son’s and Princess Diana’s death.

“It was an accident. There is no evidence that suggests anything other than that.

“There has got to be a stage at which someone persuades him to stop this persistent demand that somewhere along the line this was a conspiracy. There was no conspiracy.”

Her views were echoed by another member of the committee, former Labour minister George Foulkes.

“I think it’s a total waste of time and money,” he said. “The extraordinary performance of Fayed has turned the whole thing into a circus. I think the coroner should now seriously consider stopping the inquest.”

Former Labour Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane said: “This is not only a farce, it is a contemptible abuse of British law and a scandalous waste of public money.”